I am looking for a tool that I can use to create sprite sheet easily.

Right now I am using Illustrator, but I can never get the center of the character in the exact position, so it looks like it is moving around(even though its always in one place), while being loop through the sprite sheet. Is there any better tools that I can be using?

Also what kind of tips would you give for working with a sprite sheet? Should I create each part of the character in individual layers (left arm, right arm, body, etc.) or everything at once? any other tips would also be helpful! thank you